I am my dead mother (the dead mom fraud)

Betty Becker was ill, so her daughter took her to the hospital. However, the daughter, Loewen B. Craft, didn’t admit her mother to the hospital under her real name and date of birth.

I assume she already knew what she was planning to do.

When Ms. Becker died a few days later, the official view was that Ms. Becker was still alive.

Four years later, it still seemed that way – until Ms. Craft was arrested inside a bank, dressed up as an older-looking woman. She was wearing a grey wig and using a walker, trying to open up a bank account as her dead mom.

Ms. Craft had kept her mom alive so she could cash her pension benefits. She had already collected a total of $145,000.

And under her real identity of Loewen B. Craft, she had also convinced both the state of Washington and the Social Security Administration that, since she had no income, she should receive benefits, and she collected another $247,000.

She pleaded guilty to theft and forgery, and, as her real self, may have to repay a chunk of the money.